1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of heating, drying and solidifying body wastes and an apparatus therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Methods of disposing of body wastes vary according to nations, climates, cultural levels, eating habits and the like.
Methods of washing away wastes have been widely employed in damp regions for a long time. In the simplest method, wastes are directly washed away in rivers instead of otherwise being disposed. In regions where sewers exist a method has been developed in which wastes are flushed away into the sewers by washing the toilets. In contrast to such sewerage disposal, a drying disposal has been employed in dry inland regions. In desert regions wastes are dried by burning sand and are scattered in the wind. Wastes are used as fuel in regions where vegetation serving as fuel is scarce.
In agricultural areas, a collecting method (night soil method) has been firmly established to use body wastes as manure. In the past body wastes were used widely, serving the valuable function of manure; nowadays, however, the use of wastes as manure is avoided because of hygienic considerations, including the prevention of epidemics. As agricultural techniques improve and modernize, body wastes have been replaced with chemical fertilizers, and have been disposed of in various kinds of disposing facilities in which body wastes are treated, such as by chemical, oxidizing, wet-oxidizing, and vacuum evaporation drying methods. Such facilities and methods are significant as transitional methods until public sewers and terminal disposing facilities are completed. Upon their completion, the body waste disposing facilities have become a part of the terminal disposing facilities.
Toilets are roughly classified into three types in accordance with the method of disposing of body wastes: collection-type (night soil-type) toilets, flush-type toilets and special toilets. Collection-type toilets are further classified into three types: a scooping-up type for scooping up body wastes; a simple flush type for scooping up wastes which have been washed with a foam washing liquid and a small amount of water; and a special washing-water circulating type for scooping up wastes which have been broken down with special recycled washing water. In all three types of toilets, body wastes are stored in enclosed concrete tanks, retaining tanks or the like. Flush toilets are further classified into two types: a waste-cleaning tank type for discharging wastes to sewers having no terminal disposing facilities; and a discharge type for directly discharging wastes to sewers having terminal disposing facilities. Special toilets are further classified into three types: a chemical-treatment type for disposing wastes with chemicals; a heat-treatment type for incinerating or heat-treating wastes; and a compost-treatment type for breaking down wastes by the operation of microbes.
In all methods of disposing of body wastes by any type of toilet, in the end, wastes are discharged into rivers and the like. As the amount of discharged wastes increases, so does the amount of contaminants discharged into rivers, thereby exceeding the capacity of the rivers, that is, the natural environment, to clean the wastes. As a result, a red tide occurs in closed-system water areas, and the water in the sewers becomes the cause of pollution.
Flush toilets require an enormous amount of water.
In the interest of environmental protection, a compost type toilet has been devised in which after post-use sawdust or the like is introduced, and body wastes are fermented while being stirred mechanically. However, in the type of toilet where a cleaning tank is required, a large tank is also required for settling, concentrating and fermenting the wastes. Such a toilet cannot be directly adapted for use in houses.